I wasn't allowed to watch "Three's Company". My mom thought it was too suggestive. It probably was, but I think I was too young to get it. I think it came on after Little House. I don't think I ever TRIED to watch it.

There was a show called "You Can't Do That on Television" that my mom didn't like because they said "shut up" a lot.

Married with Children and The Simpsons were also off limits. I remember my mom's very TBM brother thought Married With Children was hilarious. I remember I was shocked to find this out.

Beverly Hills 90210 was also a big no-no. I don't remember if my parents forbade it but it was frowned upon.

The major incident that I remember: I was probably 16 or 17 and my parents were going out for the evening. Earlier that day, I had been reading the TV guide and I think I asked what Rosemary's Baby was about. My parents told me it was a bad movie. They went out and I watched it. My parents came home earlier than I expected and got mad at me. "We don't invite Satan into our home".

It seems like we weren't allowed to watch a lot of stuff.

It seems silly, but one of the things I really appreciate about being apostate is being able to watch what I want.

We also weren't allowed to watch MASH, Buck Rogers in the 21st Century, Charlie's Angels, Love Boat, Fantasy Island, or Dukes of Hazzard.

My mom would let us watch all of these shows, except Three's Company, if Dad wasn't home. Since he was usually off at some church meeting, we usually got to watch the shows that came on during the week, and we'd spend Friday nights at our grandmother's house, so we could watch the weekend shows, too. She didn't care what we watched, as long as we kept it quiet so she could sleep.

Three's Company - to which i habe now not only seen but practically memorized every episode and line.

Charlie's Angels - i think if my mommy knew her boy was gonna end up being a big homo she might have had second thoughts on that one.

There was a strict 9pm bedtime at my house. I have since learned the reason for this. After a full day of kids my mom needed some peace and quiet time to herself. that came after 9pm.

There was a strict forbiddance of PG and R movies until i went to an LDS sleepover at 14 and the movie Jaws 2 at the theater was on the agenda. She kinda had to go along with it since all the other LDS moms thought it was okay. This was such a major breakthrough for me.

I remember the day when mom found out about "Love to Love You Baby". I had been a huge Donna Summer fan for a long time (I loved "Love to Love You Baby" from my first listen). Donna was becoming more and more popular and was starting to do interviews on the tv. I remember coming home. Donna was doing an interview on tv and my mother was sitting in her chair with a most pissed off look on her face. It was not pretty. To this day i have refused to give up my listening to any and all of Donna's music. Of course - now that she is 60 and a born-again christian the more provacative themes are gone.

Finally, I guess i recall my mother watching shows like Dallas and other after 9pm shows. She didn't feel they were bad - just more suitable for adults and not children. Looking back i have to agree with her decision on that. I recently borrowed Dallas the complete first season on DVD from the library. She and i discussed it -she said she really liked that first season but that it got rather stupid after that. I couldn't manage to get through the entire first season. I'm digging the HBO shows - Sex and the City, Big Love, True Blood etc. I bet the mormon mommies and daddies are having fits over these shows. BUT i have to be honest, i think they do contain adult themes and are not appropriate for children. i also think another fav South Park is not for young eyes either. But among and for adults -i love it.

I wasn't very resticted on TV mostly because we only had one TV in the house and my dad pretty much parked himself there from the time he got home until he went to bed. But my wife was not allowed to watch hardly anything. Some of the restrictions were:

Threes Company

The Facts of Life

Different Strokes

Happy Days (here mom was appaled by this show :) )

Who's The Boss (had a man living with a woman unmarrried)

Charles in Charge

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“When a person is down in the world, an ounce of help is better than a pound of preaching.”
Robert Bulwer-Lytton

It was not so much what we couldn't watch (given the fact that we only had three channels) as it was when we could watch it. We were forbidden to watch TV on Sunday. However, once I got special permission to watch the Wizard of Oz because I was going to perform something from it in a music festival. One of my siblings watched something other than that, and the TV was removed from our house for six months. I guess I didn't say that the TV was locked in a cupboard most of the time... and only unlocked after school on Friday until Saturday night.

We thankfully had unrestricted TV. Well until Cable came out. Then HBO was off limits and that was about it, LOL

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I LOVED You Can't Do That On Television, I am a cult fan. My dad sat and watched Simpsons with us even while he was Bishop and he even took us to 'R' rated and even PG-13 rated movies.

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My parents wee very liberal in things like that. I think they regret it a little now that 2/3's of their kids have now left the church, LOL

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“You might want to tell the truth. It’s easier to remember.” - Cho ~ The Mentalist..A Mormon?! But I’m from Earth! - Homer Simpson..I’m sorry, but if I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong! As it is I refuse to have a ‘Battle Of Wits’ with an unarmed person!

WesMan, your comments about Donna Summer reminded me of the song from the disco era "That's the way (uh huh! uh huh!) I like it", which my girlfriend and I sang along to at the top of our voices during a Young Adult skate party.

It wasn't until years later that I realized what the lyrics and the beat and everything about that song was alluding to. And I was a returned missionary.

I wonder what the other young adults thought my gal and I were doing when we weren't at the group activities.

Like Athena, I grew up at a time when you didn't have to take care what the kiddies were watching, but when I had kids of my own I turned off The Simpsons after about the third episode convinced me it wasn't suitable Sunday viewing. Or suitable at any time for the youngsters.

Too bad, because I wanted to watch it myself, but couldn't have it on in the living room. Wifey wouldn't let me watch it alone in the bedroom either.

I always kept my kids away from South Park, but now that they're grown and gone, I'm always recommending they watch some episode or another that I've just seen. They're always way ahead of m. My son finally sent me several gigabytes worth of back episodes.

I also share a love for Curb Your Enthusiasm with my daughter. We find this stuff hilarious, but my wife does not.

DD's seven year old son is now sneaking up in the middle of the night to watch Adult Swim on the Cartoon channel, so now she's trying to nip that the way I had to nip her illicit viewing. Ah, the circle of life.

By the time I got to junior high school, we were only allowed to watch TV on Friday afternoon and Saturday, which meant that I missed pretty much every decent TV that was on during my adolescence. On top of that, my parents forbade us from watching several other shows, including but not limited to:

Beverly Hills 90210

Melrose Place

Anything on MTV

The Simpsons

In some ways, I'm glad that we had the strict TV rules that we did, because it forced us to be more creative to entertain ourselves. Also, I don't particularly care much about TV these days, and I'm pretty sure my upbringing has something to do with that.

Heh, heh. Ditto. Alistair, Lisa, Kevin Ilianovich Rasputin Kubucheski. I must have seen every episode.

The only fit I remember over a TV show was one my dad threw when we were watching "In Living Color" (where Jim Carrey got his start). There was a sketch about two gay men doing reviews on random things. (Oh! Found one!) Dad turned off the TV in a huff and demanded that we never watch that show again. Of course, those characters were regulars and we'd already seen several episodes. We didn't think there was anything worth getting upset about. Just made him seem out of touch and prudish.

Perry Mason (because he was on, way too late....10 p.m., if memory serves...during first run.) Would sneak and watch it when babysitting. So when it went into reruns for years and years....absolutely watched every episode....(even when Berger had to leave because of his lung cancer.)

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”I’ve begun worshiping the sun for a number of reasons. First of all, unlike some other gods I could mention, I can see the sun. It’s there for me every day. And the things it brings me are quite apparent all the time: heat, light, food, a lovely day. There’s no mystery, no one asks for money, I don’t have to dress up, and there’s no boring pageantry. And interestingly enough, I have found that the prayers I offer to the sun and the prayers I formerly offered to God are all answered at about the same 50-percent rate.” George Carlin

I was also not allowed to watch "The Facts of Life" only because of the title. Once my mom actually watched the show, the restriction was lifted. Nice judgment by the 'look of the cover' and not it's content.

The irony of this restriction was we always watched "The Dukes of Hazard", "Dallas", and "Falcon Crest" every Friday night when my parents went out for their 'date night'. This Friday night 'rebellion' continued throughout my teenage years when I would babysit other families and once their kids would be in bed, I got my 'education' from late-night Showtime and Cinemax shows! Valuable info for a 14 year old!!

WesMan, your comments about Donna Summer reminded me of the song from the disco era "That's the way (uh huh! uh huh!) I like it", which my girlfriend and I sang along to at the top of our voices during a Young Adult skate party.

It wasn't until years later that I realized what the lyrics and the beat and everything about that song was alluding to. And I was a returned missionary.

I wonder what the other young adults thought my gal and I were doing when we weren't at the group activities.

oh yes -i loved that song and pretty much anything KC and the Sunshine Band did. I loved the sexual undertone of disco. I knew some people who had figured it out and of course thought it awful -then i listen to the lyrics of today and realize disco lyrics, while suggestive, were really just fun and lame.

I've still never seen an episode of "Three's Company," though to be honest it never bothered me not to be able to watch it. "Dukes of Hazzard" was always a sticking point. We kids would often watch it, but it was always accompanied by a reminder or lecture about how it was depicting law enforcement as corrupt morons and glorifying law breaking. The craziest lecture was one time my dad went off when we were watching an episode of "Mr. Belvedere." I was a junior in high school at the time, and I can't remember what he found objectionable, but his reaction was certainly memorable. My siblings and I have even joked about it together as adults.

The one show I was told NEVER to watch was "Benny Hill." And since I was a good kid, I never did. One time, I was spending the night at a friend's house with a group of guys, and they turned on "Benny Hill." I grabbed an electronic game (does anyone remember Simon) and sat and played it behind the couch where I couldn't see the TV until the show was over.

The funny thing is that recently my mom and dad watched the "Vicar of Dibley" series (from the UK) with my wife, my kids (14 and 12), and me. That show was far more suggestive than many we could never watch as kids, and here my own parents and my own children were laughing together at the same crude humor. It was surreal. I take it as a sign that my parents have just given up on us, and that's a good thing.

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—BipolarExpress - We believe in being honest, true, chased by an elephant…

For us, it was Saturday Night Live. We watched Dukes of Hazzard, and Threes Company all the time. The Simpsons was forbiden after my Aunt pointed out that my little brother was acting like "those Simpson kids", but my brother and I still love watching it. There were probably more shows that we just didn't watch because my dad didn't like them than were actually forbidden.

Love Boat because Dr. Bricker made house calls and flirted with the passengers.There may have been some conjugal cabin visits that went way over my head and it was never explained what happened after the door closed.I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal.Maybe they didn’t know the difference between a Gopher and a Beaver.

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“I want you to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that your eyes may be opened, for that is the way Father gained his knowledge.”-Lucifer.

“It is better for us to pass through sorrow that we may know the good from the evil.” -Eve

My parents tried to forbid several shows after they found out we had already been watching them for awhile. I remember their ban of Dukes of Hazzard and Good Times very well. My Dad must have been informed from someone at church that the show "mocked the law" because out of the blue we got this big lecture about that and we told we could no longer watch it. Good Times was memorable because the reasons for that ban were clearly racist and I called my Dad on it even though I was only 8 or 9 years old. My Dad tried to deny this by pointing out that he had no problem with The Cosby Show but I wasn't buying it. There was another show called Rags to Riches where several orphan girls were adopted by a wealthy man and my Dad banned that one because it "gave the message that people can get things without having to work for them." And Mormons wonder why their concept of "grace" is pretty much a nullification of the whole concept. Three's Company and My Two Dads were also not allowed in our house. Of course, we eventually found a way to watch all of these shows either at a friend's house or when my parents were gone!

...we only had one TV in the house and my dad pretty much parked himself there from the time he got home until he went to bed.

This sounds like my house as well. My dad watched whatever he wanted, and since there was nothing else to do at my house, I watched with him.

However, my mom absolutely put her foot down on The Simpsons and Married With Children. Those were banned from our house.

On other shows when there was too much sex or swearing she'd leave the room in a huff, and my dad would roll his eyes and continue watching.

She also complained about how violent the first season of 24 was, but now she's the biggest Jack Bauer fan I know. WTF?

Solid Gold was not banned, but my mom got really concerned when she saw how much I liked Cyndi Lauper's multi-colored hair and crazy clothes, LOL.

Three's Company was not banned either. I watched reruns of it every day as a kid when I was home during the summer, and my mom didn't care. As a 5 or 6 year old, I didn't get that Jack was pretending to be gay so he could live in the apartment with 2 women, and I kind of don't think my thirtysomething mom really picked up on it either.

I wasn't raised Mormon or very religious for that matter, but my mom wouldn't let my brother and I watch "Married with Children" and "The Simpsons." We only had one TV in the house, so we mostly watched what my parents wanted to watch. My brother and I loved Star Trek TNG, as did my dad, so we watched that whenever it was on, as well as the classic series.

I wasn't raised LDS and my parents were fairly liberal with the TV watching but my mom was obsessed with the demonic influences of Madonna and Ozzy Osbourne. So MTV was strictly banned from our house. This is before the days of the v-chip and the ability to block channels so we watched when we could sneak it. I didn't even care for music videos but I still watched them every chance I got.

I don't have to ban anything outright since we don't get channels on our TV. The kids watch DVDs and Netflix streaming so it is usually movies they watch. My list of banned shows would be flashy children's programming with no storyline, pedantic "lesson" shows like Berenstein Bears and those awful tween sitcoms.

There is so much research on TV watching and the adverse affects of it yet not one study has shown "satanic stronghold on the family" as one of them. Until then, I'll base my family viewing decisions on what has been demonstrated and peer reviewed.

The funny thing is that recently my mom and dad watched the "Vicar of Dibley" series (from the UK) with my wife, my kids (14 and 12), and me. That show was far more suggestive than many we could never watch as kids, and here my own parents and my own children were laughing together at the same crude humor. It was surreal. I take it as a sign that my parents have just given up on us, and that's a good thing.

OK first off —BipolarExpress

(Formerly Bonogold, a name off the top of my head when registering. My new name fits better.)

LOVE the "new" screen name. I when I read it.

Secondly, Dh and I LOVE the Vicar of Dibley too. We don't have cable anymore and I don't think they make anymore new episodes. I know I spent a couple of weeks watching all of the episodes on YouTube. But when we had cable we watched it every week.

It does't matter how many times we've seen an episode we will still laugh our asses off. It is a damn good show!

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“You might want to tell the truth. It’s easier to remember.” - Cho ~ The Mentalist..A Mormon?! But I’m from Earth! - Homer Simpson..I’m sorry, but if I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong! As it is I refuse to have a ‘Battle Of Wits’ with an unarmed person!

Heh, heh. Ditto. Alistair, Lisa, Kevin Ilianovich Rasputin Kubucheski. I must have seen every episode.

The only fit I remember over a TV show was one my dad threw when we were watching "In Living Color" (where Jim Carrey got his start). There was a sketch about two gay men doing reviews on random things. (Oh! Found one!) Dad turned off the TV in a huff and demanded that we never watch that show again. Of course, those characters were regulars and we'd already seen several episodes. We didn't think there was anything worth getting upset about. Just made him seem out of touch and prudish.

“You might want to tell the truth. It’s easier to remember.” - Cho ~ The Mentalist..A Mormon?! But I’m from Earth! - Homer Simpson..I’m sorry, but if I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong! As it is I refuse to have a ‘Battle Of Wits’ with an unarmed person!

As a child I was permitted to watch anything I wanted. However as an adult I don't find TV interesting. Even channels that should be quite interesting (Discovery, History, TLC, etc) are not because of the lame sitcom style shows that are on.

Not for any religious reason but for reasons of TV being lame I haven't had a TV in my house for more than 10 years!

If my girls want to watch something they get it off of hulu.com or some other website. For me, I don't miss the noise/garbage that proliferates 99.999% of the airtime.

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“It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”—Carl Sagan

I have to admit that I did not want my son watching Beavis and Butthead. So, one day we left him with my mother with those instructions. we came back from wherever we were and there is my mother and my son watching Beavis and Butthead.
Inconceivable since my mother tried to ban me from watchig a lot of stuff when I was young. Of courese, she was never really that successful at it. Neither was I.

As a child I was permitted to watch anything I wanted. However as an adult I don't find TV interesting. Even channels that should be quite interesting (Discovery, History, TLC, etc) are not because of the lame sitcom style shows that are on.

Not for any religious reason but for reasons of TV being lame I haven't had a TV in my house for more than 10 years!

If my girls want to watch something they get it off of hulu.com or some other website. For me, I don't miss the noise/garbage that proliferates 99.999% of the airtime.

I'm a little TOO unrestricted, LOL

My kids have seen South Park, The Cleveland Show, American Dad, Family Guy, and even Robot Chicken on occasion, LOL

I probably should limit some shows.

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“You might want to tell the truth. It’s easier to remember.” - Cho ~ The Mentalist..A Mormon?! But I’m from Earth! - Homer Simpson..I’m sorry, but if I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong! As it is I refuse to have a ‘Battle Of Wits’ with an unarmed person!